Monday. Missing Links.

Today is Monday. On Monday, we type and we catch up on projects that need to be completed or turned in. Today is no exception.

As the end of the semester is rapidly approaching, Mr. Jewett and I have been busy grading student projects. We have probably graded about 7-8 projects for all of our classes over the last 3 days or so. Many of these projects have been getting Zeroes and kid's grades have been plummeting.

In our computer classes, when a student has a project, they are to link their project on their personal webpage, so that Mr. Jewett and I can access the works from the website and grade them. If the project is not linked, the kid gets a zero.

"Wait," you say, "that isn't fair!" "What if a kid did all of the work, but forgot to link the page, should they get a Zero just because of that?"

"You," I say, "aren't thinking like a 21st century, technologically savvy educator and should try to adjust your mindset."

Pretend we are in English class and a kid has a short story to write and works really hard on it and does really good stuff. Due day comes and the kid does not turn anything in. What should their grade be? You have nothing indicating that the kid did the work, so the only grade you can give is a Zero.

Same with us and the website links. If we can't see it, you get a zero. Generally, Mr. Jewett and I let kids relink for a regrade later. My rule for this is "If you want me to regrade your work, you have to send me an email asking me to regrade." Kids forget this all the time. They will see me in the hall and say "Mr. Burkhard, I linked my stuff, ple........" and then they get swept away in the tide of students in the hallway. They then think that I heard them, understood them and will remember their hallway pleadings. No chance. I forget these interactions almost instantly.

Anyway, today, kids were relinking, modifying and redoing work to get caught up. Not much else happened during the school day.